Obscured by Clouds. The rough and ready blog of a cloud benighted biologist and amateur astronomer. Astroblog will cover my interests in astronomy, biology and Life, the Universe and Everything.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Watching taikonauts go by

Yes, I've been somewhat slack with posts recently but A) I've been organising and assessing student seminars, and organizing our bianula colloquium, which has taken up large chunks of my spare time b) I've been desperately trying to get my submissions for next mioths Sky&Space finalized and C) My glases have been broken so I can barely see the computer screen to write. Anyway, here's something you might be interested in.

The Chinese have launched their second manned spacecraft. Tom and Stuart have discussion of the the flight of the taikonauts (Chinese for astronauts) and Shenzou 6 here and here. While there is a news article from New Scientist here.

I won't elaborte on this. But, if you want to see Shenzou 6 go overhead, head to Heavens-Above where there are predictions for Shenzou 6's visible passes over the next 5 days. Adelaide has only one decent pass, but the East coast has several. So go have a look.